The use of supporting sticks in the packaging of confectionary articles is well known. For example, confectionary material such as ice cream servings and lollipops have traditionally been packaged on a supporting stick made of cardboard, paper, or wooden material. The sticks themselves are formed in any of several appropriate shapes, such as a long cylinder or a long rectangular shape.
Attempts have been made previously to substitute a plastic material for the more traditional cardboard or similar materials in confectionary sticks. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,498,808 to Wagner discloses the use of a molded, flexible plastic confection stick including longitudinal grooves molded into a section of the stick.
While such a general design provides an adequate support structure, the longitudinal grooves required in the design may cause a handling problem. That is to say, when a number of such sticks are packaged in the same container, the ridges and grooves of adjacent sticks tend to interlock horizontally, causing them to stick together. The interlocked sticks must then be separated in some manner before fixing the confectionary material to them.
Moreover, the manufacture of such a confectionary stick according to the molding process required to produce a Wagner stick is relatively expensive to tool and maintain.
There is therefore a continuing desire to devise a lightweight, strong confectionary stick which can be economically and easily manufactured.